Avalanche Looking to Piece Together Wins
The Avalanche had a night off and found themselves five points out of the playoffs. The Phoenix win was another blow for an Avalanche club already reeling from a 3-1 loss to Vancouver Wednesday night. The loss was particularly painful because the Avs were tied at one with seven minutes to go.
Additionally, the Avalanche had a host of injuries in the game. J.S. Giguere was the biggest concern. Giguere lasted only 16 minutes before leaving with a groin injury. He faced nine shots and surrendered a goal. Varlamov played well in his absence, giving up one goal late in the third on 21 shots. Canucks Goalie Roberto Luongo had a great game at the other end, giving up only one goal to Erik Johnson.
Giguere’s injury is not thought to be extremely serious. However, the Avalanche did recall goalie Cedrick Desjardins. Desjardins played two games for Tampa Bay last season. This year he has an 8-5 record for the AHL Lake Erie Monsters with a 1.85 save percentage. He will back up Varlamov tonight in Edmonton.
Peter Mueller did not play Wednesday because of an upper body injury, which apparently does not mean a head injury. However, he is not skating with the team right now, which is a little suspect. With Mueller, it’s hard to tell what’s going on.
Replacing Mueller’s spot on the O’Reilly-Landeskog line was TJ Galiardi, who had been a scratch in the last Avs game. Galiardi lasted half a period before being taken out with a torso injury. Daniel Winnik returned to his spot as wing on the line. Galliardi seemed to have turned his game around early in 2012, but this is another setback for the young forward. He went on injured reserve yesterday
To make up for the loss of all of the wingers, the Avalanche recalled Mark Olver who was a staple of last year’s team before falling to injury after playing 18 games. His addition means that Matt Duchene is not ready to return to the ice, despite being upgraded to day-to-day. Defenseman Tyson Barrie had to go down to make room for the moves.
The Avalanche’s injuries come at a bad time for a team battling for a playoff spot. The Avs play Edmonton tonight. They need to get points right now and hopefully can get them from a team that has ten fewer points than the Avs. The Avalanche’s pieced together roster will have to hold up if there’s any chance of passing the four teams standing in their way to a playoff berth.
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